


Strongest Ties

by SaraJaye



Category: Hatoful Kareshi | Hatoful Boyfriend
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Family Feels, Family Secrets, Mr. Le Bel Was a Crappy Dad, Not entirely BBL compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-17
Updated: 2015-09-17
Packaged: 2018-04-21 06:14:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4818158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SaraJaye/pseuds/SaraJaye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sakuya comes face to face with an ugly truth.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Strongest Ties

**Author's Note:**

> _Any, any/any, love_
> 
> _Post-"Song of the Foolish Bird", kinda hints at BBL but doesn't follow that path._

_You're my real brother. Not a Le Bel._

Shame, anger, hatred, disgust; _no, no, no, this isn't happening, it's not true, please, somebody make him shut up!_

"-my cross to bear. Sakuya, you must-"

" _Liar!_ " he spat. "Cease your infernal tales! I _am_ a Le Bel! Father, he-"

"-would have you thrown onto the streets and left to die." Yuuya tried to put a wing around him, Sakuya's feathers fluffed up in anger as he turned away. He couldn't look at that face anymore. _He's a mongrel, he doesn't know what he said. He's the mongrel! Not me!_

He was Sakuya, heir to the Le Bel family. Father, so wise and proud, taught him everything. Taught him dignity, poise, intelligence-

_-taught him hatred, prejudice, racism._

No. Father was all-knowing and wise. It was because Dr. Iwamine had saved him that Sakuya must be indebted to him.

_You bore me, mongrel._

"Sakuya..."

_My brother. My true brother, I am...I am a mongrel. A mongrel, just like him._

He squeezed his eyes shut, fighting back tears. Yuuya's wing tried to wrap around him and again he pushed it away. He wasn't a Le Bel. Everything he'd ever known was a lie, and he didn't know whether to be angry at Yuuya and his parents for lying, or himself for believing the lies.

Hatred, prejudice. Fathers were supposed to love their children, it was all he'd ever wanted. He should have known, though, a father would have supported his dream of playing the piano. A real father would have listened and understood, not continued to fill his head with cruelty.

"Sakuya?" A second voice, he turned to see Tosaka- _Hiyoko_ -beside his brother, gentle concern etched across her face. "Are you going to be okay?"

"I'm nobody," he whispered. "If the Le Bels aren't my family, I'm-"

"Not alone," Hiyoko cut him off, gently stroking his feathers. "You have us. Your true brother..."

"...and the girl who loves you," Yuuya finished. "We're your family, Sakuya, we always have been and we always will be."

Love. In all the years he'd spent with the Le Bel family, neither of them had ever given any indication that they loved him the way a family should love their son. Not compared to Hiyoko, seeking him out to talk to him during the hike and complimenting his piano melodies, giving him beans he secretly liked for their taste and not the price. Hiyoko, inviting him to festivals and haunted houses. Hiyoko, giving him a place to live when Father kicked him out.

And Yuuya. No matter how cruel he'd been to his brother, Yuuya had always looked out for him. He'd killed another bird in its shell just to protect his real brother.

_My real brother._

Yuuya wrapped both wings around him, and this time Sakuya didn't pull away. Hiyoko knelt beside them and continued to stroke his feathers.

_Some family. A perverted baby-killer, a carnivorous ape-descendant, and a foolish bird living in a cave. Won't we make the most charming Christmas card._

But his brother's embrace was warm, Hiyoko's presence soothing, and perhaps that meant more than appearances or bloodlines.

Even if it meant living in a cave and sleeping on rocks.


End file.
